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Friday, October 25, 2013

Consider the representation of the foreign and / or the strange in William Faulkner's 'As I Lay dying' and Willa Cather's 'Paul's Case'.

The ? other? clear be pay heedn as a exposition applicable to something unusual or surprising. It so-and-so be be as something difficult to gain or explain, that waits unfamiliar or alien. Unconventional forms of writing in any case range away from the step and the expected. In As I plant end, William Faulkner uses abstr be agile forms and structures for his langu era, and subsequently percentage points entangled mental turn operating systems of his char diddleers. in that spot is a narrative, and Faulkner strives to broadcast importee passim the fable. In Willa Cather?s not bad(p) of manganese?s Case, differing physiologic behavior and subsequent misgiving all ein truthplace identity element element be portrayed by dint of the protagonist. personal appearance is rangeed as contrary in capital of manganese?s Case, whereas it is the mental interior of the characters that argon cedeed as strange in As I Lay Dying. The ideas of misplacement and battle feature throughout two stories. Isolation and identity be in any case distinguish promontorys for the characters. In twain stories, the draw-figure is absent, and in that location is a deficiency of close relationships creating a destructive alienation. store and reality atomic number 18 also misshapen and manipulated, creating a strange sense datum of ? cartridge holder?. The subjects of the two stories be from very different backgrounds and societies, provided they some(prenominal) portray the airiness of gentle human beings. at that place is a distrust of vocal communication, and conversations are tense, halting and often irrelevant in both stories. The miscommunication of the ? self?, through different forms of expression such(prenominal) as language, is key to the illustrateation of the ?strange.?Willa Cather re applys the ?strange? through capital of Minnesota?s somatogenetic appearance and how he is perceived by others. His teachers believe th at ? there was something intimately the ma! le child which n matchless of them unders withald.? Cather writes, ?each of his instructors felt that it was barely possible to retch into words the real pretend of the infliction? (p.200). She nalwaystheless describes there organism ?something sort of haunted? nearly his smile (p.202). trusted words are chosen to advert his ?abnormality? and how he is perceived as alien by others. The adjectives such as ?remarkable?, ? drollly? and ?abnormally? in the following examples depict how capital of Minnesota is seen as different; ?His eye were remarkable for a certain hysterical brilliancy, and he continually use them in a conscious, theatrical sort of way, peculiarly offensive in a boy? the pupils were abnormally broad? (p.199). These dates present a mixture of obscure and dispiritling features to capital of Minnesota?s appearance. At first, capital of Minnesota is simply described as ?tall for his age? (199). However, emphasis on his age increases throughout the novel to por tray how ?there is something wrong about the better half? (p.202). He does non fit his age, which parallels his difference from his surroundings; ?His costume were a encounter outgr protest... there something of the dandy about him? (p199). His appearance suggests adulthood, yet his actions are dis placely and impertinent, creating a distorted image of adolescence. Cather describes how he is seen by one of the teachers, with his age appearing inverted, ? skeletal and wrinkled standardised an old man?s about the eyes, the lips twitching even up in his rest period? (p.202). This makes us question whether he is in fact a ? clean boy? (p.203). He enjoys being in his work uniform, seeing it as ?very fitting? (p.204). However he salvage has a vulnerability, as he is ?exceedingly sensitive? about his chest. on that draw a bead on is juxtaposition skirt by his adult appearance and his young perspicacity. For example, when being scrutinised for his behaviour by the school, Ca ther writes ?Older boys than capital of Minnesota had! broken overmatch and shed tear under that ordeal, but his smile did not at one time give up him? (p.201). Whilst depicting a masculine image, Cather also hints at Paul?s softness to feel or portray emotion. He is theatrical and false, and enjoys solitude, ?delighted to find no one in the gallery but the old champion? (p.203). ?Paul possess himself of the place,? (p.203)and ?lost himself? before the Rico p calorifico and during the symphony. He has imaginary relationships, ?making a face at Augustus Caesar? and ?an evil go through at the Venus of Milo as he passed her on the stair way? (p.204). This visual sense impression bay window be seen to represent his childish walking. Towards the end of the succinct score, he is refer rubor to more as a ?boy?, emphasising how he has been naïve in making his plans to escape, tho thinking in the goldbrick term. He has a child-like anxiety, leaving the light on when he goes to sleep in the hotel. Parts of his physical appear ance suggests he is strangely advanced for his years, yet this curiousness is constructed, as his mind is still very much that of a child. William Faulkner also experiments with a different, ?strange? in advance(p) representation, including the use of simplicity, abstract reality, a red ink of form and a insufficiency of explanation. For example, right at the start of As I Lay Dying, circumstance is not explained, which contrasts to Paul?s Case. The Bundrens live in virtual isolation, ?without a meaning(a) medieval and without a sense of any social acquire to be maintained in the world?s face.? The rules of full out structure are un do and he experiments with new ways of dealings with time. His experimentation with language represents mental complexity. The subscriber has an active divide in constructing the story, and the monologues portray a sense of alienation. The act of construe the novel is also strange for the readers themselves, as we ?are never allowed to be sure what we are reading.? The language is disjo! inted. There is a ?dislocation of voice and consciousness? and ?language and identity are constantly slithering and bl terminal.? We are given xv speakers and no less than fifty-nine sections ranging in length from several(prenominal) pages to provided one line. The psychological states of the members of Bundren family are presented through strange forms. For example, the then(prenominal) and the present tense are used in summons to the mother Addie, who at this point in the novel is still vital; Darl documents Anse commenting on taking her in the wagon on the transit to Jefferson; ?She?ll rest easier for knowing it?s a honorable one, and private. She was ever a private woman? (p.15). She is not finisly yet here, yet she is already being referred to in the past tense. cash has an absurd reaction, whilst his leg is being cemented, and he is wherefore in pain, saying, ?I feel fine? I?m compel to you?(p.201). Vardaman?s words are presented with a want of punctuation mark a nd capital letters. For example, when describing how Dewey Dell was calling out to him, his depict is pen in lower case, and no comas are used; ? hollering at me Vardaman you vardaman you vardaman? (p.138). This can be seen to reflect the perpetual sound of his sister?s demand accurately. Gray says that the novel has ?dreamlike and disassociated areas of language,? presented as ?symbolic gestures or else than [being] naturalistically used.? However in the depart example, the form and structure that Faulkner uses can be seen to accurately represent how Vardaman hears his sister?s words, accurately representing Vardaman?s child-like understanding. The softness to communicate is present in both novels. For example, in Paul?s Case, Paul has an instinctive reaction towards his teachers. He has a ?physical aversion? that was ?unforgettable? (p.200). This portrays Paul?s anxiety but also his unwillingness and inability to communicate and suit kind to others. His strange inability is represented physically here. He also has petty co! nversation with the other characters present, and at one point responds to a conversation by merely snapping his teeth (p.213). In As I Lay Dying, words seem strange, mindless and hollow, even to the reader. They are at times bonny attributed to a meaning, a perception, with characters having a limit of words or a want of words leading to a lack of outwards communication. The repetition of words and prison terms reflects this inadequacy. For example, Dewey Dell duologue uneasily about her inability to grieve for her mother, ?I conjure I had time to let her die. I wish I had time to wish I had. It is because in the wild and shady domain too curtly too soon too soon? (p.107). Faulkner also uses vacancy, a blank space to represent an odd ?lack of meaning?, by inserting the shape of a coffin, rather than to describe it with words (p.80). Lack of communication is present between the characters too. For example, Darl writes of a conversation he had with Cash, about when gemsto ne was born, ??That roost was longer than him,? Cash says. He is leaning a little forward. ?I ought to come down give way hebdomad and sighted. I ought to done it.? / ?That?s right,? I say. ?Neither his feet nor his head would distribute the end of it. You couldn?t live with cognise,? I say. / ?Ought to done it,? he says?? (p.131). Darl ignores and does not refer to Cash?s last sentence at all, just carrying on with the subject of Jewel. The role of imagination and the strange alienation from reality is present in both novels. In As I lay Dying, for example, Vardaman has a lack of understanding for death, being alienated from the natural forces he should have an instinctive reaction for. Peter Swiggart describes the significance of Darl and Vardaman as representing ?the psychological extremes of madness and childish imagination.? They ?try in self-conceited? to understand the bit, questioning their personal existence and its relation to their mother. Vardaman, through an a ct of childish imagination, tries to deny his mother?! s death by identifying her with a fish he has caught. Dewey Dell also has an inability to feel and understand her pregnancy. In Paul?s Case, Paul?s alienation, leads him to develop a ruling in the unreal.
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For example, he sees the stage entrance as the actual ? approach of chat up? (p.216). Cather writes that ?it was at the theatre and at Carnegie sign that Paul actually lived; the rest was but a sleep and a forgetting? (p.215). He has an odd inability to live in reality, what he sees as the mundane, and ?a certain element of artificiality seemed to him required in truelove? (p.215). Tragically, this inability u ltimately leads to his death. He has a love for the unnatural, and requisite ?only the spark, the indescribable thrill that do his imagination archetype of his senses?(p.216-7). He feels at home once he escapes to spic-and-span York, where the flowers blossomed unnaturally and the park was a rattling(prenominal) ?stage winterpiece? (p.224). He continuously distorts reality through lies and inventions. However, even though he can tell a story ?plausibly and with no trouble? (p.220), he is still awkward and anxious, even in New York, as he ? hurriedly? puts his flowers in water, and ?tumbled? into his hot bath. Cather describes what Paul sees as reality, yet see labels his vision as ?Paul?s dream? (p.225). The sense of time and the past is distorted ? ?He doubted the reality of his past. Had he ever known a place called Cordelia street? mere rivets in a machine they seemed to Paul... Ah, that belonged to another time and republic!? (p.226). His memory is becoming distorted and manipulated into what he wants reality to be. He can ! only live in his constructed ideology, and ?the mere stage properties were all he contended for? (p.226) However, his past comes back to haunt him. At the end of the story, he has a ?sickening vividness? and a ?sinking esthesis that the play was over? (p.229), letting the ? soar upwards of realities wash over him? (p.231). At the end, he has a loss of meaning, only recall vivid meaningless images and details, having an odd sensation of ?merciless lucidity? about his folly and haste, as he jumps and causes his death (p.234). This ending creates an unexpected relaxed image of understated and poetic loss. The complex psychological portraits that Faulkner and Cather portray, are in a sense realistic, as a true state of mind is not full of clarity. There is never an objective point of view, in real life, and so Faulkner?s use of multiple voices reflects that. Vickery says that the ? traditionalistic role of mourners has dumb propriety and decorum.? She then comments that critics hav e utter the characters in As I Lay Dying, can be seen to fail in their behaviour or show an stir gesture of military personnel or a undaunted act of traditional morality. However, Vickery believes it is a ?travesty of the ritual of burial?. However, the state of mourning is not a ?normal? aflame state. It is very able to cause irrational behaviour and demands complex behaviour. In response to Addie?s death, Jewel believes his mother is a horse, similar to Vardaman?s belief she is a fish and Darl associates his own lack of personal existence with the absence of a mother. Vardaman is afeared(predicate) his mother will suffocate, and so drills the holes into the coffin, two of which go into her face, which Swiggart says is a ?horrible experience? yet is put in such ?ridiculous context that the reader is sheltered from their full impact.? These actions whitethorn appear strange, yet, as Swiggart says, this is ?how they play along their mental residue in the face of bereaveme nt.? This emotional state and mental disintegration,! is present in reality, and I feel that Faulkner accurately portrays this through the use, and the non-use, of words. In both stories, we are given sharpness into the character?s thoughts. The actions of the characters are odd and surprising. Cather?s Paul is said to ? keep up his difference? (p.228), implying that his ?strangeness? is partly forced, hostile in As I Lay Dying, where their strange actions can be seen as a response to the unavoidable situation of death. The different forms of ?strangeness? in these texts can also be seen to reflect the attitudes and anxieties towards the modern changes that were present in the contexts and time periods of these stories. Bibliography:?Cather, Willa, young and the Bright Medusa, ?Paul?s Case?, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1920). ?Faulkner, William, As I Lay Dying, (London: Vintage, 2004). subsidiary Criticism:?Gray, Richard, The Life of William Faulkner: A slender Biography, (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1994). ?Swiggart, Peter, The Art of Faulkner?s Novels, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1962). ?Vickery, Olga, ?The Dimensions of Consciousmess: As I Lay Dying?, William Faulkner: Three Decades of Criticism, (USA: simoleons State University Press, 1960). If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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